A Book Review by Thomas Gladysz. A detailed, well-wrought look into the comedian’s early career(s)….” Like Charlie Chaplin, there are more than a handful of books about Buster Keaton – the stone-faced comedian who sported a pork-pie hat. And like Chaplin, Keaton remains one of the truly great performers of […]
Hardened Idols: Hollywood Boozers, Brawlers and Hard-Luck Cases
A Book Review by Maysaa H. Jaber. Adds a human, sometimes tragic face to those at the heart of moviemaking during the Golden Age.” Laura Wagner’s Hollywood Boozers, Brawlers and Hard-Luck Cases: Fifteen Ill-Fated Actors of the Golden Age (McFarland, 2025) takes readers on a journey of rediscovering the life […]
Hola Frida, or What to Do When Life Deals You a Bad Hand
By Jenny Paola Ortega Castillo. The narrative may seem like a raw and harsh retelling of the artist’s story; however, Frida’s numerous illnesses are handled with the utmost respect throughout the film…. Art allowed her to process pain, reclaim her missing identity outside of what illness turned her into and […]
Reading Between the Lines: An Interview with Biographer Carl Rollyson
By William Blick. I do not ask myself what information is available about a figure or would they cooperate. Rather, I ask myself, what is in my own experience or what do I think I know about this figure? What qualifies me to write about this person? That is what […]
Touching the Past Generation: A Photographic Memory
By Will Comerford. The blurring of perspectives in this personal documentary reinforces how much mother and daughter are truly occupying similar psychological spaces, despite living in different decades and contexts.” Why do we document? Why paint a hunt on a cave wall, or write down what Jesus or Confucius said? […]